Racismo nos meios de comunicação: um estudo sobre a representação negra nas telenovelas brasileiras

Abstract

The Brazilian telenovela has a long tradition in national television culture, being one of the most consumed media products in Brazilian homes. The present work discusses the forms of representation of black characters in telenovelas, as well as the low presence of black actors in soap operas. Starting from a specific soap opera – Segundo Sol-, broadcast by Rede Globo in 2018, it presents the racial issues present within the plot and also its implications outside this context. Therefore, the research was supported by a qualitative methodology. Content analysis was used, guided by the contributions of authors such as Silvio de Almeida (2019), Lilia Schwarcz (2011) and Kabengele Munanga (2010), to understand the historical, social and ideological aspects of racism; as well as the contributions of authors such as Stuart Hall, Muniz Sodré, Winnie Bueno and Maria Aparecida Bento, for an analysis of aspects of differentiation present in the media and the cultural dimensions that racialization produces in the circulation of images and discourses. Screen ethnography was the methodological strategy used to analyze the soap opera chapters, with the aim of going beyond the text present in the plot and paying attention to the context in which the production was inserted. The analysis of the selected showed the persistence of black underrepresentation in novelistic productions. However, based on bibliographical and empirical analysis, it was possible to signal an advance of these guidelines in the media context, even considering the marketing character present in the use of guidelines that aim at representativeness. This research demonstrated that, although it is possible to point to possible changes, the fight for equality within a social context of exploitation that is based on an economicist logic seems to be incompatible. I argued that, despite the importance of black movements in the fight for representation, the necessary structural change will not be made from small changes in the casts. Finally, I pointed to counter-hegemonic media initiatives and the constant search for a new form of content production that takes into account the sensitive relationship of the other as a subject, as well as public policies aimed at real transformations in the form and content of television media production in Brazil.